AUTHOR INFORMATION: Perry Anne Wilson is a Canadian author who has big ideas and an itch to tell stories. After taking a sabbatical from writing due to having spent some time on university, a career, and life in general, she has returned to her original love a few ago and hasn’t looked back since then. She is a member of the Vancouver Independent Writers Group, and has self-published several novels. She has written the Charity Deacon Investigations thriller series, the Quinn Larson Quests, the Madeline Journeys and a couple of stand-alone novels. She also is a project management consultant. She currently is based in Vancouver, BC.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB:Quinn Larson is a wizard. His life in the hidden world of the Vancouver Real Folk is one of study and socializing, and he'd prefer if it stayed that way. One unfortunate night, however, he witnesses a human's death at the hands of a fairy, and it becomes clear that all is not well among the magical races.

One dead human is a problem, and three is something he can't ignore. Neither can the human authorities, and the last time the Real Folk came this close to being exposed, it caused a genocide that washed away a part of all their magical power. Someone has to make the murders stop and avert the attention of the police, or they may face much worse than death, and that task falls to Quinn.

But why are the fairies killing humans? Why are the beautiful, immoral, power-hungry Sidhe involved? Quinn will need all the help he can get to figure it out – help like Olan, a pixie with an unfortunate case of feathers; Princess Elizabeth, the leader of the rose fairies; Cate Witherspoon, a witch that he's never been able to stop thinking about.

For all their sakes, he has to find the answers before the body count gets much higher. But as his enemies rise to stop him, Quinn is left with a terrible question. How much would you sacrifice in the service of the greater good?

FORMAT/INFO:Imperative is 258 pages long divided over thirty-seven chapters. In this book, narration is in the first-person, exclusively via Quinn Larson. Imperative has a self-contained plot however leaves a few plot threads open and is book one of the Quinn Larson Quest series.

January 4, 2012 marks the Mass Market Paperback and e-book publication of Imperative and was self-published by the author.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I think I have an addiction and its time I announced it, urban fantasy is my drug of choice currently. I’m always interested in new titles and I have Jim Butcher to blame for it. His Dresden files have ignited a insatiable need in me to absorb as many books as possible. P. A. Wilson approached us with a review proposal and the blurb seemed interesting enough for me to give her book a try.

The book begins with Quinn Larson who is a wizard situated in Vancouver, British Columbia. He happens to see a fairy luring a human to her death, intrigued and alerted by this strange and surprising phenomenon. He decides to investigate more about this as he’s concerned that too many human deaths will alert the human authorities and this definitely will not be good for the non-human folk as well as enlightened humans such as Quinn. However he also has to contend with his new partner Olan who is harboring a vendetta from a deity known for vengeance and death. His choices are limited and he will have to bargain from all corners and gain every advantage possible to get to the root of the mystery behind the fairy folk’s recent interest in humans. The story then dwells into a world wherein humans exist with other species and are ignorant completely of the presence of the others.

This book was an easy one to read for it has many plus points and an equal if not less drawbacks attached to it. The biggest plus point for the story is its pace, namely the story opens up with the main issue in the first chapter itself, and from then onwards barrels forward with all its twists to the surprising conclusion. This is the best part of the book that it takes a streamlined approach and never wastes time in uninteresting side plots. The second part that I enjoyed about the story is the location and the author’s inclination to dip it in the other-worldly affairs, the author does her best to show the various features of the magical folk and the world they inhabit. The last plus point would be that the author has included a couple of good plot twists towards the end that surprised me and hopefully will give most experienced readers enough of an incentive to read forward and not get bored.

Now onto to the drawbacks which are namely the most predictive part of this subgenre, this book along with many others is very derivative of the trend set by the Dresden files, the pattern is replicated here with a few different touches and a few plot twists however it is the same and that can be disappointing to read for readers who would like to read something different. The second and the more important drawback is that the main character remains a mystery to the readers throughout the book. Quinn Larson narrates however remains an enigma to us I’m not sure if this is something the author planned for or was just something unfortunate. His actions and thoughts while shown on the page don’t make him much of an enticing character and he remains a colorless narrator. This was the biggest drawback for me as while the story was enticing, the first person narrative wasn’t strong enough to support it.

This being the first book, it could be very well that I’m jumping the gun and the second book might very well be a different book and overcome all these deficiencies and I would want to find out if that is indeed the case. I hope the readers read an extract or two before deciding whether they want to go ahead with book one of the Quinn Larson Quests.

CONCLUSION: P. A. Wilson is a writer with an interesting story, there are some rough edges to this book but if you can overlook those and read this story, you will definitely be entertained and that’s something to look forward to in any book. Give it a read however please check out the excerpt first to see whether you like the author’s style or not.

1 comments:

Kitty
said...

I've started this book now and it shows a lot of promise...but the lack of professional editing shows. I think I am going to offer my services as a freelance editor to sci-fi and fantasy authors in particular! It is frustrating to me to see the seed of a good book lost. I'm interested in the story but not sure I will get more from this author!